WHEREAS, by Public Law No. 85-529 of the 85th Congress (House Joint Resolution 479, July 18, 1958, the House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States concurring), May 1st of every year has been designated as National Loyalty Day; and

WHEREAS, by House Joint Resolution #6, 121st General Assembly, State of Delaware, May 1st has been designated as a "special day" for annual observance in the State of Delaware as Loyalty Day; and

WHEREAS, throughout our nation and our State, the Veterans of Foreign Wars annually mark this occasion with special and appropriate ceremonies, especially in our State at historic Cooch's Bridge, where the Stars and Stripes were first unfurled in battle; and

WHEREAS, such occasions provide an opportunity for all citizens to reaffirm their faith in the United States and to rededicate themselves to the principles upon which this great Nation was founded; and

WHEREAS, there have been varied attempts over the last two centuries to stifle and destroy those hard-won rights of free speech, freedom of the press, and the right to worship as one chooses; and

WHEREAS, each of us should make a personal pledge to uphold these God-given rights in the defense of which thousands of our fighting forces died on battlefields all over the world;

in Delaware and urge all citizens of this State on this occasion, to join in reaffirming their undivided allegiance to the government of the United States and the ideals which it depends and preserves. I further request that civic groups join with our veterans in ceremonies and exercises that will appropriately demonstrate such loyalty, and in display of our National Emblem and the Delaware State Flag.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I, Elbert N. Carvel, Governor of the State of Delaware, have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the said State to be hereunto affixed at Dover, this seventeenth day of April in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the one hundred and eighty-sixth.